You’ll have to forgive me for bringing attention to something several years old, but I discovered the following advertisement while borrowing the special edition of the movie Jumper from the University of Florida library, and it threw me for a loop. I have no doubt that such things are not original. Still, the concept of an advertisement like this is alien to me (after the fold):
Apparently General Tire is the choice for jumpers. I didn’t know that. Did you? And with them, anywhere is possible. That’s a bold claim.
Joking aside, what is curious about this is how serious the advertisement takes its premise, so much so that you don’t get the impression that the ad is making a mockery of the product or Jumper. The ad is certainly being facetious, though; that has more to do with the fact that this is an advertisement for tires than it does with the fact that it’s an advertisement targeted at a fictional audience (jumpers). We see the same sort of amusing tone in advertisements geared towards women, men, kids, and so on for products ranging from incredibly useful to downright silly.
So, am I being ridiculous by thinking this is a very weird thing indeed, or is it really as unusual as I think? Have you seen ads like this before?
2 Responses
Totally agree, unusual. And I have to think all the jumpers–or people out there who believe they are jumpers–went out to the driveway to see what they were running on, going What the hell? No wonder I'm having trouble jumping to Paris. I've got Michelins!
The odd thing for me is that the tires in that ad aren't even in the movie in any noticeable fashion. They might be on the cars in the movie, but you never really focus on the tires or anything…there's no General Tire shops or anything. Very strange.